TEACHERS are expected to act as “front-line storm troopers” under government anti-terror measures, education union NUT heard yesterday.

A motion unanimously passed at the NUT conference said that the Blair-era Prevent strategy, stepped up under the Con-Dems in a bid to tackle the rise of al-Qaida and the Islamic State, was “closing down space for discussion” in schools.

South London teacher Jan Neilsen said that schools in her borough had been ranked “tier one” under Prevent because of the large numbers of Muslim students.

“We are expected to be front-line storm troopers who listen and spy and notify the authorities of students we are supposed to be suspicious of,” she said.

Westminster was “rewriting the anti-war consensus” and promoting division within communities, Ms Neilsen added.

The conference motion urged the next government to exempt schools from the Prevent agenda and said that Ofsted should stop assessing schools on the quality of their “British values” teaching.

But NUT delegates said that students were defying the government’s divisive agenda and coming together to resist victimisation — and squaring up to school chiefs who play along.

Conference heard that one south London Muslim boy had been pulled in by police for discussing religious extremism on the way home from the mosque, despite the fact “the boy had put a strong argument against joining jihadist groups.”

Another boy who wanted to visit dying relatives in Pakistan had his laptop seized and police found he had viewed three extremist videos.

When questioned, the boy had said: “How can I argue against something if I don’t understand what it means?”

Ms Neilsen also said that schools inspectorate Ofsted had been “bullying” schools into complying with anti-terror programmes and reporting comments that would not normally be considered cause for alarm.

Her comments follow fears raised by members of fellow teachers’ union ATL at their conference last week.

Southend High School for Boys head Robin Bevan told ATL that Ofsted would be expected to act as “micro-fascists,” enforcing the Tory “British values” agenda.

The new criteria would see teachers assessed on whether they were adequately safeguarding against extremism on the basis of conversations with groups of pupils about their political views.

But Ms Nielsen continued: “To the credit of the non-Muslim students, they have been very, very angry.
“They want to organise a meeting to take (her school’s) head to task.

“We need to learn from these students, we need to start a campaign now.”

East London history teacher Phillip Allsopp warned that the government’s agenda was threatening to shut down political discussions.

He said: “A student asked me: ‘Can I go on a demonstration against the Israeli assault on Gaza?’

“According to the Prevent strategy I should think: Oh my god! This girl’s a terrorist!

“If we have Prevent imposed on us, the reality is that students will feel they can’t come to us.

“They’ll think we’re on the same side as Nigel Farage and the Daily Mail.”

NUT executive member Alex Kenny said: “Prevent is a blunt instrument that will do damage and inhibit debate in schools and Ofsted should be allowed nowhere near these issues.”

But a Conservative Party spokesman insisted the guidelines should not prevent discussion of “sensitive issues.”

He said “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance” should be at the heart of what every school offers.